This invention relates to electrical components which include electrical contacts and has particular utility for electrical components in which the contacts are formed of precious metal such as silver or the like.
Conventional methods of inserting a contact onto a base member or electrical component, such as a terminal, switchblade, or the like, include the steps of fabricating a nonprecious metal base member, fabricating a precious metal contact by coining, cold heading, or the like, and joining the base member and the contact.
The disadvantages of the foregoing method include difficulty in handling and orienting a loose contact prior to securement to the base member, the complexity of the machinery required to locate the contact with respect to the base member and to insert the contact, the cost of using three separate operations to form the part, and the possibility of having scrap or excess precious metal after the contact is fabricated.